ARPA-E Expo at Farmingdale State University

A group of ladies and gentlemen gathered around Steve Israel as he arrived at Farmingdale State University on Tuesday, May 11th. Mr. Israel was the center of attention for more than just being the 2nd District of New York's congressional representative—he is also a member of the House of Representative's Office on Science and Technology... more to the point, he was there looking for people who were looking for money. He came to the right place (and at the right time, too).

Israel began the proceedings with a bit of a history lesson: on October 4, 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik into space and Americans are left feeling that they somehow had became technologically behind. Now, Israel contends, we are facing a similar predicament. A "Sputnik moment" as he calls it. Only this time, the threat comes not from Russia, but from China. China is realizing that to be able to fuel their massive economy, they will need to rely on using clean and sustainable energy technologies. Israel then invoked the voice of John F. Kennedy by saying that we need to develop a new energy model, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. From here, it became an introduction of the ARPA-E program.

Despite his motivational speech, the entirety of the day did not actually belong to Israel. The head of ARPA-E, Dr. Arun Majumdar, was on hand to talk about funding new energy start-ups and development of "risky" energy technologies. Dr. Majumdar gave a brief overview of the successes the program has had in the past year, of the companies that have been funded on Long Island, and finally, the plans to increase funding for 2011.

And with that, the panel discussion was on. The panel was comprised of:

Leo Guthart, who is manages Long Island's Topspin Partners and is currently a Trustee of the Stony Brook Foundation and of Cold Spring Harbor Labs.